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Melissa Dean (Dub Poet) performs at Laurier March 8

Communications, Public Affairs & Marketing

Feb 28/13

Jamaican-Canadian dub poet, Melissa Dean, will be on Laurier’s Waterloo campus to perform her poetry March 8 at noon in DAWB 3-106. Dean is visiting as part of Professor Eleanor Ty’s AF 101Q seminar, “Growing up Canadian Narratives.”

Dean – AKA the M.A.D poet – is a professional poet and educator from the Jane and Finch area of Toronto, and is known for her anti-racist work, calling attention to issues that face the African-Canadian diasporic community, especially black Canadian youths. Her poetry performance is powerful and moving, often telling short narratives about violence, bullying, drugs and other challenges facing black youths. Betsy Powell from the Toronto Starwrites that Dean “delivers a message of hope and empowerment using clever phrases and inventive rhymes spoken, almost sung, in an impassioned raw style.”

Dean has been writing poetry since she was 15 and has performed in Toronto as well as in locations in the United States, including Las Vegas. She is a founding member of the Dub Poets Collective-Youth Initiative in Toronto. She has recently curated “Lost and Found: (Finding) Hidden Beauty in the ‘Hood’” at the Art Gallery of York University.

This event is free and all are welcome to attend.

The performance supported by the Council for the Intellectual and Cultural Development of the Arts.